Opening along with Traditions on Thursday, September 8, is the exhibition Kolam, which will appear in the Dempsey Gallery.

An Indian woman often begins, and sometimes ends, her day by drawing Kolams on the ground outside the front door. For centuries, women have passed down these repeating patterns from generation to generation. They symbolize the scientific and philosophical patterns innate to, and infinite throughout, the cosmos. Kolam, a type of Tantric art, is part of the cycle of creation and destruction, with the dots and the lines representing Shiva Shakthi, as they complement each other.

Kolam features intricate works by award-winning Maryland artists Aishwariya Chandrasekar and Shanthi Chandrasekar. Shanthi teaches the art form, and her students Anushka Tandon, Nisha Rajam, Sarayu Iyer, Sindhu Iyer, and Vani Narasimhan also will show Kolams.

Aishwariya and Shanthi have drawn Kolams together ever since Aishwariya could hold a pencil. Recently, they exhibited together, displaying their Kolams at the Sandy Spring Museum and the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Together, mother and daughter won the Maryland Traditional and Folk Arts Master-Apprenticeship Award in 2010, and they have participated in the Folklife Festival in Baltimore ever since. Aishwariya is currently a senior at University of Maryland, College Park, and Shanthi is the art gallery coordinator for the City of Takoma Park.